Shrinkage
Posted on February 18th, 2012 by Phil Kirk
I noticed something which I had never even given a thought to previously, my booted left leg is now an inch smaller around the calf muscle than the unbooted leg lol. I guess it is because I only work from the knee up on that leg now. In another month I will have a broom handle leg and a popeye leg lol
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My man, if you’ve only lost an inch or thereabouts you’ve suffered marginal atrophy so far. Take that as good news! For reasons I won’t get into here, there was a delay (weeks, not days) between my injury and surgery. When the calf muscle is not engaged, the leg becomes a peg-leg from knee down.
That said, I think rehabbing and rebuilding up the calf muscle on the injured leg is common for all of us. So wishing you the best. (& hoping the same for myself).
It came as a shock, I figured I was walking around in the boot, and that it was getting used even for just holding me upright. It quite amuses me to look down and see dissimilar legs. I just was’nt expecting it.
I am now in the ‘this darn boot catches on everything, legs of chairs, walking sticks, doorways, steps…and when people ask me how I am I say fine and forget that they mean that they want to know why Im wearing a duck bill’d plastic boot.
Phil, the main job of your calf muscles, the job that keeps them buff and solid, is to pull on your AT to straighten your ankle and lift your body or propel it forward when you walk or run or jump. Since you tore that AT, those calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) have been relieved of all duties, so naturally they’ve atrophied. Gradually, as your AT regrows and strengthens, it will be safe and appropriate to give those muscles an increasing fraction of the work they used to do — the work that built the other calf up to its present size. Meanwhile, there are ways to keep most of the rest of your muscles from atrophying, but not those muscles.
In addition to trying to maintain the fitness, size, and strength of your other muscles, you can also try to get on the fastest proven rehab protocol you can find, which will keep your muscle’s time-out to a minimum and (logically) minimize the atrophy you’ll have to reverse as you start tensioning your healing AT.
BTW, if you can please install the ATR Timeline Widget (see the Main Page), it will help us all answer our FAQs about you.